System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $1000 PC

Features
By published

Although we were afraid of the results, this time around we decided to try something new, forgoing the Core i5 in favor of a dual-core Core i3 CPU in our build. Can the higher clock rate compensate for the loss of two physical cores in our $1000 system?

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

3DMark really favors the SLI'ed GeForce GTX 460 solution in today's SBM machine. Even at stock clocks, the current system beats the previous build at high and extreme modes.

Overclocked, today's PC leaves the older build in the dust.

PCMark demonstrates a heavy CPU dependency. At best, the overclocked Core i3-550 comes close to stock Core i5-750 performance. 

The Sandra results are similar to PCMark, which is no surprise, since these are also CPU-oriented tests. The memory bandwidth of the new system is also a little lower, due to lower clocks.

Don Woligroski
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.